Selected correspondence surrounding this record

As mentioned last night, a first-year Northern Gannet was picked up barely alive in Tiffin on Tuesday. Here is the account from Mona Rutger of Back-to-the-Wild (Castalia).

The call came from Seneca County on Dec. 4th. The caller said they had a Cormorant, but described something quite different. After more description, we felt it might be another loon. When it arrived, it looked very much like a loon except for the plumage and a slightly different beak shape and it just was not a loon. It was in terrible condition - and I knew I couldn't save it. I paged through all my fieldguides and all I could come up with was a Northern Gannet. Couldn't be. It died two hours after arriving. At least she will end up in a Museum situation, to be a source of learning and appreciation by many. Mark Shieldcastle, ODNR, Div. of Wildlife, Ohio Biologist will have her taxidermied and placed on display at the Sportsman Migratory Bird Center at Magee Marsh in Oak Harbor. - Mona Rutger.

I happened by Friday meeting up with the field ecology class from Heidelberg College. Needless to say I was VERY surprised with what Mona produced from the freezer. I stopped by again Saturday and obtained a couple of photos of the bird. Peterjohn (2001) is not very clear on the details behind many of records up to the time of that publication so exactly how many specimens the state has is a guess on my part. Peterjohn singles out only two specimens, a bird in 1994 and another in 1931, referring to the latter bird as the first specimen. However, Williams, in "Birds of the Cleveland Region" 1950, mentions a bird taken in Nov. 1929 and sent to Ohio State University. Perhaps the specimen is not extant. A bird captured in 1925 was banded and released (Williams 1950), but the fate of a bird captured in Cincinnati in Dec. 1967 is not mentioned by Peterjohn. There may be a couple of other specimens, but I feel that there are sufficiently few that museum curation is a more appropriate treatment. As would be the case for most any other OBRC documentation review species rather than becoming a mounted display or accessioned within a teaching collection.